This city, caught between an industrial past and an uncertain future, had one of the state’s highest unemployment rates again in April.

State figures show that the city’s unemployment rate remained at 15.3 percent in April, the fourth highest in the state and the highest of all the other Gateway cities.

The SouthCoast also continued to lead Massachusetts in unemployment, with an unemployment rate substantially above the state average of 6.3 percent.

“This is something we’ve been talking about for the five years I’ve been the CEO here,” said Rob Mellion, CEO of the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “This was probably discussed for 15 years before that.

“Our current strategic plan addresses this. They started talking about it in 1993. At that time, the city’s strategic plan stated that Fall River needed to diversify its economy, building its middle class and establish zoning to attract employment that would support a middle class.

“We are still talking about that.”

What has been identified in the SouthCoast, especially in Fall River, is that the city is facing two separate problems in employment.

One is that there are fewer jobs than workers, Mellion said. State and city figures show there are about 12,000 more potential workers than jobs in Fall River.

The second is that the jobs being created require more education that the average new worker in Fall River possesses.

“It is a chronic problem,” Mellion said. “You can link it to the low skills availability we have in this year.

“The economy is evolving to the point where you need certain skills to be able to work. You need to have computer skills. You need to be proficient with language and grammar.”

Fall River’s work force has 37 percent of its members without a high school education, city figures show. That does not fit modern workforce requirements, Mellion said.

“People need to change their educational attainment level to get a job that will sustain them,” Mellion said.

“But what do you do for them today? We need to focus on attracting jobs for people with lower educational levels.”

Warehouse and transportation jobs would do that, Mellion said.

“Imagine if Fall River were a port that worked in concert with the Azores and Portugal. We have all the ingredients needed to do that here. We have to look at developing jobs along those lines.”

In the meantime, the city that once was one of the largest textile producing centers in the world, will struggle with unemployment, Mellion said.

The entire area is struggling. Almost every local community had unemployment higher than the state level of 6.3 percent, state figures show.

The communities reporting the highest unemployment in the state were, once more, the Cape Cod towns of Provincetown, with 36.7 percent; Truro, with 21.1 percent; and Wellfleet, with 16.5 percent.

Dukes County, which makes up Martha’s Vineyard and the Elizabeth Island, reported unemployment at 11 percent. Barnstable County, which covers Cape Cod, had unemployment at 9.1 percent. Bristol County reported an overall unemployment rate of 10.2 percent.